31
HEIKKI Kovalainen made a split-second
decision not to enter the pit-lane with
his Lotus increasingly engulfed in
flames – opting instead to try and stop
near a marshall’s post.
The car had caught fire, with just
over a lap to go, after a collision with
Sebastien Buemi's Scuderia Toro Rosso.
After the race., Kovalainnen explained
that he hadn’t realized just how big
the fire was until he was about to enter
pit lane. He opted to stay out and
coast down the straight, looking for a
marshall with an extinguisher.
In the end, he was able to put the fire
out himself, with an extinguisher passed
across the pit wall, but the car was badly
damaged.
Smart thinking
from Heikki as
Lotus engulfed
F1 SINGAPORE
>>
A second DNF in a row – this time after an
on-track fracas with Mark Webber – has
left Lewis Hamilton with work to do to get
back into the championship chase.
The collision happened at Turn 7 on
lap 36. Webber’s Turn 5 exit had been
compromised by lapped Lucas de Grassi,
offering Hamilton some momentum.
He pounced through the Turn 6 right-
hand sweep, side-by-side, to nose ahead,
but Webber came back –now on the
inside – into Turn 7. It was very, very
tight, Hamilton turning across the Red
Bull, hooking his left-rear over Webber’s
right-front.
Normally, the money would be on
damage to the front suspension of the
inside car, but infact it was the McLaren
which was terminally damaged. Webber,
though, continued on, albeit into a nail-
biting final 25 laps with a vibrating right-
front wheel.
The retirement was Hamilton’s second
in as many races, having retired in Monza
following similar contact with Felipe Massa
at the second chicane. As a result the
Briton goes into the final four races with a
20-point deficit in the championship:
“I couldn't have expected a worse two
races especially at this crucial stage of the
season,” said Hamilton.
“I saw Mark made a mistake and got
caught by a backmarker so I knew I could
slipstream him into Turn Seven and I
thought I was enough past him.
“I couldn't see him and turned in and left
enough room and the next thing I know
I got hit. I don't know what happened. I'll
have to watch it on TV and see what really
happened. Twenty points is massive and
with four races to go that is a big gap, I
have to get my head down and hope for
something.”
Ferrari may have closed the gap on Red
Bull since their crushing victory in Hungary
two months’ ago, but McLaren still has a lot
of work to do to reel in the championship
leaders and, with time quickly running out.
In the second half of Sunday’s race, Jenson
Button lost an average of a second per lap
to Alonso and Vettel at the front of the
field – his fastest lap time was 1.7 seconds
shy of Alonso’s.
The impressive speed of the Red Bull
was not all Mark Webber was counting on,
however, after making a clever strategy
call pay off to secure his eighth podium
finish of the year. After starting fifth and
keeping his position off the line, the early
Safety Car period on lap 3 gave Red Bull
the opportunity to do something different
in an effort to get its championship leader
onto the podium.
Webber’s crew opted to pit him,
which dropped him to 11th, but he had
soon worked his way back to eighth
after overtaking Glock, Kobayashi and
Schumacher on the road. Although he
failed to get past Williams’ Barrichello, the
Brazilian’s pace was good enough to keep
Webber in contention for the podium, and,
when McLaren’s pace began to falter it
became clear that Webber would easily
climb to third, leapfrogging Hamilton,
Button, Rosberg, Kubica and Barrichello.
“I settled into the first stint and we had
an early Safety Car. The team told me to pit,
which I questioned, but they assured me it
was the right thing,” Webber recalled.
“I wasn’t sure and knew it was going to
be a long stint on the primes, but when we
came out and re-queued behind the Safety
Car I realised I was in a reasonable position.
“I passed a few guys, then got to Rubens
who was driving very well and I couldn’t
clear him.
“We then had another restart and it can
be difficult to get away cleanly when you
have back-markers involved.
“I got caught up behind one the Virgin
cars – he was doing his best, but Lewis got
a good run on me down the outside into
Turn 7. He turned in, but I was still there
and we collided at the apex. It was a racing
incident, as the stewards subsequently
agreed ...”
However, while Hamilton was out on
the spot, things weren’t rosy for Webber
either – his right front tyre perilously close
to popping off the rim. How it stayed there
for 25 laps is anyone’s guess – regardless,
he was able to maintain a couple of
seconds back to Button to the end.
Fate is easing towards the Australian.
Webber tangles with Hamilton but
stays on-track for podium finish